Buzz Blog

Layoffs at ABC 4 Darken Holidays

It was not exactly the Christmas bonus he may have been hoping for. Dan
Metcalf, a web journalist and online film critic who served as executive
producer of the KTVX/ABC 4 website, got his pink slip today. ---

Metcalf said he
was one of several station employees who were pulled into an office and told their positions were eliminated. He said employees had
been nervous ever since Nexstar purchased the station "a couple of
months ago." Nexstar is a publicly traded broadcasting company based in Texas that owns 50 TV stations nationwide, including KTVX (ABC 4) and KUCW (CW30).

"It's
shocking to think they're going to run the station without a
webmaster," Metcalf says, "but there's not a soul left who can do it."

Rumors
as to what changes, if any, were made to the roster of reporters and
anchors have not yet been confirmed, although senior reporter Chris
Vanocur's Twitter account is no longer affiliated with KTVX/ABC4. Calls to ABC 4 news director Larry Perret were not immediately returned.

In the meantime, a "blindsided" Metcalf is simply trying to hold it together for his family. His tweet this afternoon said: "Kudos to @ktvx (ABC 4), who laid off several people 7 days before Christmas - including me."